Beauty and the Beast Original Screenplay
Background In late 1989, when The Little Mermaid was nearly complete, the Disney company approached Richard Willams, animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and asked him to write a screenplay for Beauty and the Beast. However, Williams wanted to continue working on his lifelong project The Thief and the Cobbler, but suggested his collegue Richard Purdum. A team of animators which included Andreas Deja, Mel Shaw, Glen Keane, Don Hahn, Tom Sito and Hans Bacher travelled to Purdum's studio in London and spent the next several months putting together a screenplay, the storyreels for which were included on the Diamond and Platinum edition DVD releases of the final film. However, Jeffery Katzenburg deemed the screenplay "too dark and too dramatic" prompting Purdum to resign as director. Plotline The screenplay began with Belle's family moving to a small cottage in the country after Maurice inexplicaby lost his fortune. Shortly thereafter, Belle celebrated her 17th birthday and was given her mother's music box as a gift. However, after being told that he was to lose the house if he didn't pay his taxes, Maurice proceeded to sell the music box, but it accidentally got broken while he was looking for a potential buyer. While trying to return home, Maurice was chased by wolves and wound up at the Beast's castle. Meanwhile Belle's aunt tried to marry her off to Gaston but she was reluctant because she didn't love him. Little is known about how the story was to continue from there, but concept art shows that in the climax of the film, much like in the final version, Gaston and his forces confronted the Beast at his castle, and proceeded to fight off several of the enchanted objects, before Gaston personally entered a duel with the Beast. However, the duel was to have ended in the Beast knocking Gaston over a wall. Differences between the screenplay and the final film *The film, in particular on Belle's portion of the story, was much closer to the original fairy-tale. **Maurice, Belle's father, was a merchant instead of an eccentric inventor. ***Belle's family had two additional members: her younger sister, Clarice and her snobbish Aunt Marguerite *Gaston, instead of the town hero and a hunter, was a foppish marquess (French Nobleman). *Phillipe was named Orson, and in addition Belle's family owned a pet cat named Charley. *The Enchanted Objects communicated through pantomime. Gallery Belle Clarice.jpg|Clarice with Belle Clarice Charley.jpg|Clarice with Charley Clarice Marguerite (2).jpg|Clarice greeting her aunt Clarice Belle Maurice.jpg|Clarice dances with Belle and her father to the music played by her mother's music box Clarice Marguerite.jpg|Clarice surprised at her aunt's attempt to butter up Gaston Clarice serving tea.jpg|Clarice serving tea to Gaston Clarice Belle Maurice (2).jpg Gaston_with_Belle's_Family.jpg|Clarice watches as Gaston proposes to her sister Margurite Carriage.JPG|Marguerite arriving at Maurice's mansion Marguerite Gaston (1).jpg|Marguerite complimenting Gaston on his wig Tumblr lzk7l0if7J1qjiv1vo1 1280.png|Maurice and Orson being greeted by a prostitute, to their embarassment. Marquis_Gaston_with_Belle.jpg Marquis Gaston with Beast.jpg|Marquis Gaston emerges from his box and confronts the Beast in the forest Marquis_Gaston_Enchanted_Objects.jpg|Marquis Gaston duelling against several of the enchanted objects. Beauty_and_the_ Beast_ Story_Thread (3).jpeg|Marquis Gaston is defeated by The Beast Marquis_Gaston_Belle's_Cottage.jpg|Marquis Gaston waits for Belle in her cottage Beast_Soldiers (1).jpg|The Beast chasing away Marquis Gaston's soldiers Beast_Soldiers (2).jpg Belle_Beast_Garden.jpg|Belle and the beast in the garden by Mel Shaw Category:Deleted scenes Category:Beauty and the Beast Category:Scripts Category:Unused concepts